Gabe Vincent scored a team-high 23 points, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo each scored 21 points, and the No.8 seed Miami Heat rallied from a double digit first-half deficit to defeat the No.1 seed Denver Nuggets 111-108 in game two of the 2023 NBA Finals on Sunday, June 4 to tie the series 1-1. Said Adebayo, “this is the Finals. We gutted one out.”
With the win, Miami won its first game in Denver since November 30, 2016 and handed the Nuggets their first home playoff loss this postseason.
Said Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra on his team’s performance “our guys are competitors.”
The Nuggets led by as many as 15 points in the first-half, built a 57-51 lead at intermission, and had an 8 point advantage after three quarters. In the final quarter, Miami outscored Denver 36-25, including 10 points from Duncan Robinson off the bench. Miami led by 12 with 3:39 left to play and survived Denver’s barrage of points in the closing minutes.
Denver’s head coach Mike Malone was not happy with team’s win in game 1. He was just as disappointed after the game 2 loss. “Let’s talk about effort,” Malone began. “I mean this is the NBA Finals and we’re talking about effort. That’s a huge concern of mine. You guys probably thought l was just making up some storyline after game 1 when l said we did not play well. We didn’t play well. This is not the preseason. This is not the regular season. This is the NBA Finals.”
Two-time MVP, Nikola Jokic, led all scorers with 41 points and 11 rebounds for Denver. Jamal Murray finished with 18 points for the Nuggets, but missed the potential game-tying 3-point jumper as time expired.
Game three is Wednesday night in Miami.
Sports Editor Andrew Rosario contributed to this article.
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